Ades: Life Story

This first release by the wunderkind composer of British music, Thomas Adès (born in 1971), documents a restless imagination combined with a knack for uncovering attractive timbres, compelling harmonies, and a vital sense of storytelling in music. There's no one voice here, as Adès experiments with each piece as a new sound world, and the success of these youthful trials supports Adès's reputation. His Opus 1, Five Eliot Landscapes--published when he was 17--shows him confident and sensitive at word setting, allowing clean articulation from bright soprano Valdine Anderson. In his rhythmically off-kilter Opus 4, Catch, we hear influences of Ligeti, but as seen from a thoughtful distance; Adès is remarkably self-aware when dipping into his broad inspirations. Still Sorrowing (Op. 7) is the most striking: the piano's middle register is muted with a strip of Blu-Tac, creating gamelan-like effects. But it's no gimmick. The piece, beautifully played by the composer, is a 10-minute wonder of pale colors and bittersweet emotion. Life Story sets a Tennessee Williams poem about pillow talk and incineration for the pop-voiced soprano Mary Carewe. This might be considered more of a "sound experience" than his follow-up CD Living Toys and his opera Powder Her Face. Yet it's vividly recorded and unmissable at budget price. --Pierre Ruhe